Comments on: Online distribution is “right horse” to back, says Xbox Europe boss

By: patlike

patlike — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:38:30 +0000

I think his hair perfectly befits a man in his position. Understated but full of exuberance, a style that shows calmness under pressure and an adequate level of seriousness while being light-hearted enough to be a real part of the entertainment market. Very well cut.

By: Tonka

Tonka — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:33:50 +0000

Are we looking at the same hair? It seems thinning to me.

He’s still a handsome devil though. Reclining hairline or not. Could do with some grey on the sides…

By: patlike

patlike — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:31:13 +0000

He’s definitely not fucking about on the hair front.

By: bloke

bloke — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:23:42 +0000

Neil Thompson certainly has great hair, doesn’t he?

By: DUFFKING

DUFFKING — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:12:39 +0000

Basically he said that MS was pumping money into HD-DVD in the hope that it would fail and that they could fly the flag for digital distrubution.

Which is kind of stupid, but there are parallels.

By: Tonka

Tonka — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:13:11 +0000

Pah! That’s what I’ve been saying for the last 12-18 months.

I took it he was talking about video distribution.

By: DUFFKING

DUFFKING — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:39:39 +0000

Does anyone else see a surprising correlation between this and Michael Bay’s comments a while back?

By: Blerk

Blerk — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:24:17 +0000

Yeah. And that’s why they’re so keen on it, obviously.

By: grandmaster

grandmaster — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:19:20 +0000

People like to buy games - a physical disk, that is - and then sell them when they’re done. Or buy old second hand ones at a bargain price. All of which is impossible with digital distribution.

By: patlike

patlike — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:01:49 +0000

Agree. If they focus squarely on digital distribution they’ll alienate not only a large proportion of the UK but a huge chunk of the global population itself. Just look at the reaction to MacBook Air and it’s driveless comedy.

By: Zumi

Zumi — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:58:38 +0000

It’ll be a long time before it’s truly feasible. It’s not just that the distribution methods will have to improve (better broadband speeds), but every console is going to have to come fitted with a behemoth of a hard drive.

It’s not just that certain areas need to have fast internet with a lot of bandwidth, it needs to be something that’s available to the vast majority of people. Many areas of the UK have only JUST got basic broadband for the first time.

By: patlike

patlike — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:56:11 +0000

The standard’s 150Mb, yep. They only allow higher numbers on special occasions.

By: Blerk

Blerk — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:54:39 +0000

Whoops, sorry - that’s 150mb, isn’t it? Unless they changed it again.

By: Blerk

Blerk — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:50:28 +0000

Yes, it’s quite ironic really - Microsoft are the ones crowing about online distribution on one hand, yet they’re the ones limiting their downloadable games to 512mb because they have a HDD-less console that they have to support.
I suspect if time travel was possible at Redmond they’d have been popping back to beat whoever it was who said “hey, let’s have a ‘core’ 360 for less money!” with a cricket bat.

By: Shatner

Shatner — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:46:39 +0000

I think he’s still sore about those scratched Halo 3 discs.

When MS release some of their big games (Halo, GoW2, Fable 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Something Else 2) as a full downloadable game then I’ll be more inclined to have faith in their sentiment.

Considering this comment comes along with badmouthing Sony - who’ve shouted less but achieved more with with online releases of high-profile games like WarHawk and GT Prologue - I find his claims questionable.

By: Hero of Canton

Hero of Canton — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:33:21 +0000

Yep, totally with Blerk here. Broadband needs to be much faster and consoles need much more space. Even then, you’ll still get loads of people that like to own something physical to show for their purchase. I can’t see discs completely disappearing for a while yet.

Let’s hope this ‘12-18 months’ isn’t a sign as to when MS are considering making their next console.

By: Blerk

Blerk — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:27:12 +0000

This generation we took away your hard drive! Next generation… your disc drive! The generation after that… no joypads! Ha!

By: patlike

patlike — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:15:19 +0000

I reckon all this is code for “there’s no drive in the next console”.

By: morriss

morriss — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:08:06 +0000

Agreed.

By: Blerk

Blerk — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:07:19 +0000

Again, he’s stupidly optimistic on the time scales for this. It’s just not feasible to deliver all modern-sized games in a networky fashion. Do I want to download 30gigs of PS3 game, or do I want to just click a button and have someone send it to me on a disc in the post?

Until broadband is *very* much better and consoles have a much, much larger on-board storage device, online distribution of console games is going to be confined to smaller, simpler games. Like it is now.